So here we go again, to those who are reading this please be warned this is going to be a long one. I went though my photos to refresh my memory along with tracing the dates that back logs for 9 months.

As some know by now I have retired the Celica from daily duties so I needed a new car. I toyed with the idea for over a year during the trials and tribulations I came across with it.

I have always had an intention of buying an E46 M3 but after some consideration about the age, potential and after months of failed attempts to find a good condition 04.5+ I started looking into other options that I liked in the past. Range Rover Sports, Range Rover Evoque, BMW 135i, BMW X5, BMW M5, Mercedes SLK55, Nissan 370Z, and even an Mitsubishi Evo X. I knew I had euro curiosity and I feared I would fall into another modification pit if I bought another Japanese car, that is why I considered the SUV options to leave the performance sector all together. I am starting to wish I went the SUV option.

So some time in March I headed out to view a few cars and came across a mint condition 2009 BMW 135i. It only had 20,000kms on the odometer and was quite heavily optioned from factory including the professional sat nav with the updated iDrive/screen. The only issue was that it is a manual example and my original intention was to finally buy an auto (daily). I was given the keys and given free reign to take it for a test drive. Alone. After that drive, a bit of negotiation and quick judgment I went ahead and signed the contract. I am still unsure if I have made the right decision to this day.

Target acquired:

A week went by and the car was ready for pick up. Being the way I am, I did not take time to get acquainted with the car in standard form and already begun purchasing things for it before it was even in my garage.

Picking it up from the dealer:

Little things like orange indicators and yellow lights get on my nerves so I had no hesitation to change them the moment I got the car home.

Assortment of random lights:

Deorange:

Yellow halos gone:

A few days had gone by and I was getting acquainted with the car but I had a developing hatred for the radio/changing disks. Luckily my iDrive/iPod cable finally arrived. I was rather impressed with the integration; it is on par with the Alpine system in the Celica. Additionally another box was ready for collection; this one contained an aFe intake system and AR Design 3” catless downpipes that have been ceramic coated.

Whoops:

Additionally I wasn’t 100% happy with white halogen halos so I ordered this:

I didn’t install the intake or downpipes based on the fact I was hoping to get a dyno baseline before I started tinkering with the engine. I had to fly over to Malaysia for 2 weeks for work so it had to wait. Upon arriving back in Perth I had a decent haul of gifts waiting at the Post Office for collection. This mainly contained exterior mods such as grills, diffusers, spoiler, and badges. These parts were set aside besides the grills.

Whoops V2:

Chrome kidney grills vs. matte black:

Carbon fibre diffuser, spoiler, and also new plates:

Both life ruining machines at home together:

I didn’t manage to get a booking made for ASG once I got back due to Sean’s wedding. I was willing to wait but after a month I decided to just install the intake since driving around in a quiet car was making me unhappy. The intake was surprisingly easy to install, the stock items used very few bolts and is put together in a Lego like manner. I did however find wrappers and cigarette butts inside the air box; luckily the filter did the job. The new intake dramatically increased the induction note, the turbo whine and additionally the diverter valve noise came out but it still lacked the low-end note. I miss naturally aspirated induction noise. As expected no performance gains were felt but it is arguable that the dual pods will see benefits when running higher boost.

Stock box out:

Exposing the plastic manifold:

The aFe intake + heat shield in:

Still hell bent on removing yellow lights I noticed BMW sells a LED conversion kit that replaces majority of the interior lights. Further research came up with the result that “eBay kits” are actually the most complete and reliable set. Considering they cost practically nothing I went ahead and bought them to try out. The results were pleasing.

Full “kit”:

Result:

I also went ahead and did basic stuff such as removing the standard rear mudguards, and performing the “golf tee mod” to the exhaust. Essentially you block off the vacuum line that activates the flap inside the muffler which results in keeping both pipes fully opened at all times.

Disgusting mudguards:

Vacuumed line blocked off:

I also bought carbon fibre roundels aka badges along with a vinyl overlay kit. I didn’t want to install the carbon badges whist the car still remained stock on the outside so I went ahead and applied the overlays in the mean time. I prefer this look rather than the standard blue BMW logo, which in my opinion ruined the theme I was going after.

Rear roundel modified:

On the wheels:

Carbon on the inside is fine to go ahead:

At this point the Antilag track night was nearing and I planned to debut the car there along with the Celica. So I finally went ahead and organised a dyno run with ASG. The car didn’t show any abnormalities and I was able to get a guideline as to what it runs stock before I went ahead and changed the downpipes/tune. It came out with 260rwhp at the hubs, not too bad for a stock output (with intake).

All bolted in:

Stock chart:

As a safety precaution/requirement Josh from Galvsport found a simple solution to mount a fire extinguisher without cutting or damaging the car in anyway using the stock seat mounts. This made it completely reversible if I decided to remove it in the future.

Nifty hiding spot still allowing full electric movement:

Well as fate has it I crashed the Celica along with grenading the engine. After that incident I decided against testing my luck with the 1 out on the track. I also should mention I didn’t manage to fit the downpipes in time either due to the Cobb flash tuner not arriving in time.

The car comes standard with a 4200k HID headlights however I was still unhappy with the colour tone. Whilst driving down the road with Adrian for Shannon’s wedding I noticed his E55 had 6000k HIDs and it turns out he just replaced the stock globes with 6000k Philips options. I ordered a set of 6000k Philips replacements pronto the following day deciding against the cheaper options. My car was optioned with the overpriced adaptive headlights so I had no intention on running the risk of breaking them with cheap ballast/globes. When I pulled out the stock units I realised these were identical to them but only with a different colour temperature.

Philips replacements:

Sadly this made me much happier:

Not entirely related to the build I would like to report the fact that entering this car via the boot is surprisingly comfortable. The pull leavers accessible in the boot for the seats fold down are a wonderful feature. It is very necessary when you have shit mates who play pranks that result in you having no possible way of entering through the doors (one being a AL member). I originally started the prank by blocking off my mate making him have to enter through the passenger door… That was until the other guy decided to join in. Karma kicked in fast.

Instant karma:

A while later my Cobb AP finally arrived at work. I was previously against pre programmed flash tuners however after seeing plenty of the guys having no issue running them in the US and Australia on 1Addicts/E90 post I decided to use it. The device comes with several maps stage 0 (stock), 1 (mild boost upgrade no mods), 2 (downpipes minimum), and 2+ (FMIC a must). Each stage also has 3 versions drive (95RON mild), sport (95RON bit more aggressive), and aggressive (98RON… Yeah). It also allows custom maps to be made so my intention is to finish my initial bolt on mods and get Sean at ASG to clean up the tune.

I didn’t have much patience so during my lunch break I went ahead and loaded a stage 1 map. The car pulled surprisingly better with the slight bump in boost and it also produced an angrier engine note. The torque increase also produced a more “lively” drive that the car needed.

Such a compact unit:

5 minute tune:

This motivated me to play with the car a bit more so once I got home I decided to debadge the car along with changing over to the carbon fibre badges.

Tempted to put a 120D badge on:

More wank accessories:

Since I finally have my Cobb AP I could install the AR design downpipes I had sitting around. During the wait I also picked up a set of Eibach pro kit springs to give the car a mild drop before I went ahead with the next phase of mods. They will be replaced with coilovers in the future. I headed to Galvsport a few days later to install them with the assistance of Josh.

Ready for install:

Surprisingly flat under body:

The downpipe install was not as easy as we first expected. I did a bit of research prior to the install however it was pointed out to me a fatal flaw… I was reading guides from the US that features left hand drive cars leaving them with much more space compared to the ADM cars with the steering column in the way. The space allocated for the stock pipes with cats was very limited and furthermore reaching the bolts to unbolt them proved to be quite difficult. The steering rack required to be loosened to give us a bit more working space. After copious amounts of swearing they finally came out.

Even though they no longer had the bulky cats, the bigger diameter proved to be just as difficult to install into the tight space. It required lots of twisting and the Tetris theme song playing in my head.

Finally bolted to the turbos:

Unfortunately I was in a rush that night and had to leave right after they were bolted in so we couldn’t change the springs too. Furthermore it appears that I had no boost after the downpipe install. After a quick research it appears one of the C clamps on the downpipes was obstructing the actuators causing the loss in boost, this was quite common due to the tight spacing. We decided to bring the car back to the workshop the next day to rectify it along with the spring change. Fun fact I left the workshop with Josh’s car keys to the 323 race car in my pocket so he had fun trying to lock the car back into the workshop. I am a top bloke.

The next day I had tickets to the Mundaring Truffle festival so the plan was to leave the car with Josh and pick it up all fixed and lowered that night/the next day. This plan had a flaw… Going by my theme the night before I managed to drive all the way to Mundaring before I realised I had left the 1’s car keys in my pocket… I instructed Josh to use the forklift to carry the 1 back into the workshop overnight since I was going to be up in Mundaring for quite a while. But for some bizarre reason he was not happy with this suggestion, which resulted in me coming to pick the car back up at 6pm before I headed back out to dinner that night in the City. Once again I am a top bloke.

A few nights later I went to visit Josh after work for a chat and dinner. We also finally moved the C clamp out of the way, to give me boost once again. He originally tried accessing it from the top of the engine bay with little luck so we put the car back on the hoist and a few minutes later the issue was gone. A stage 2 map from the Cobb AP was loaded and we took it for a spin, the car pulled much harder than stage 1 with the stock downpipes. According to the Internet the car is currently at 330-350rwhp, I am yet to check.

Josh loves it:

Coincidently the night after the power bump along with a less than ideal mood due to work politics the car started making funny whipping noises from the back driving home. I pulled over and realised a belt has parted from the tyre; using the first aid kit supplied in the car I snipped off the detached piece and drove home carefully.

Whoops:

The following day I made a few phone calls asking for pricing and availability for replacement tyres. I wanted to run Advan AD08’s however they were quite pricy in Australia (especially compared to US Tirerack) along with the fact of being out of stock for another 2 months locally. I needed tyres and I needed it now. I decided to try out the Federal’s 595 RSR after seeing positive reviews. They do not have the best wear ratings but from what I heard they produce very good grip and they are cheap to replace. After driving on them for the last few months I can report back that they grip significantly more than the standard Bridgestone run-flats, I no longer have a strobing traction control light all the time and I am considering running them again after this set over my original plans of “upgrading” to Advan AD08’s. I have finally worn out the front set of run-flats too so I will be switching those over to RSR’s or AD08’s too.

Following my theme for random unfortunate events with cars I walked to my car one day to notice half the brake light on the ground. As it turns out it is a common phenomenon for the 135i’s to break the 3rd brake light due to a design flaw and that it is covered under warranty.

“Nature of Defect:
EXTERIOR LIGHTING:BRAKE LIGHTS
Bulletin Number:
SIB-63-10-08
Bulletin Date:
Jun 2010
Summary:
BMW: MOUNTING TENSION OR THE CUTOUT AREA OF THE TRUNK FOR THE LIGHT IS CAUSING THE THIRD BRAKE LIGHT LENS TO CRACK. THIS IS ALLOWING WATER TO LEAK IN. ( NHTSA ITEM NUMBER - 10036986 )”

I spoke to Auto Classic about it and they denied this fact and wanted to charge me $500 to replace it. I couldn’t be bothered dealing with them since a genuine new replacement only cost $60 online so I might as well cut my losses.

My luck with cars:

The same day my BMS clutch stop arrived in the mail. The original BMW clutch pedal has a significant dead zone beyond the full disengagement of the clutch resulting in an unnecessary long throw. This is resolved by simply replacing the stock stop with a simple BMS item which improved it drastically.

Stock nipple vs BMS stop (I am running 2 spacers):

Installed stop:

I also began removing the standard spoiler:

That weekend I went to visit Josh at Galvsport again to finally fit the Eibach springs. I also went ahead and did something dodgy, I bought set of Macht Schnell spacers to “stance” out the wheels temporarily until I decide on what new wheels to run so they were fitted too. Upon arriving Josh was not impressed with my partial spoiler removal, I gave up on removing the adhesive however he demanded me to finish it off haha. BMW used some nuclear grade tape to attach the stock spoiler; it took a solid 30 mins with Prepsol to remove the adhesive. Once it was clean I installed the carbon fibre replacement.

Such a pain:

Parts waiting to be installed:

“Hellaflush” (The Celica in the distance):

The spring install was relatively straightforward; the only complication was to make sure we didn’t damage the sensors for the brakes and headlight height sensor.

Front struts out:

Stock front springs vs. Eibachs:

Stock rear springs vs. Eibachs:

Rear 20mm spacers:

Front 20mm spacers:

The springs didn’t settle for a few days so the pictures aren’t the best representation. The drop isn’t drastic but it has improved the appearance significantly. Others recommend 15mm spacers on the front and 12mm spacers on the rear. I was happy with my choice of 20mm on the front but I do admit I went too aggressive in the rear using the 20mm spacers given the fact I am running 255 Federals that run wide over the standard 245 Bridgestone run-flats. I went ahead and ordered another set in 15mm to replace the rears.

All these minor upgrades here and there started inspiring me to pick up the pace and install other parts I had lying around. Knowing my luck with hitting things I got the carbon diffuser strengthened before I went ahead and fitted it.

Stock diffuser removed:

Carbon diffuser fitted:

The diffuser has mesh on it that exposed the silver muffler along with some white painted areas behind it. I wasn’t happy with how this looked so I went ahead and masked up the area and attacked it with some high heat black paint. It has been a few months now and there are no signs of paint flaking.

Problem solved:

Blacking out the muffler:

Revised carbon rear end:

The Celica has a satin black roof; and since I am such an original thinker I decided to go on a completely different path with the 1 and chose gloss black instead this time around. This actually helps the sunroof blend in much better along with suiting the car more in my opinion. Gavin and Ryan at GT Graphics did the wrap once again and I am very happy with the results. I decided against carbon fibre mirrors for the time being so I got them to wrap the white mirror caps instead.

Déjà Vu:

Blowtorches are totally necessary:

Wrapped mirrors:

Nothing interesting happened for another 2 weeks, except that my replacement 15mm MS rear spacers arrived so I went ahead and installed them.

Replaced rear spacers:

I had a slight rubbing issue after the spacers and lowering so I needed to get the rear guards rolled. After hearing reviews of Des from AutoFX I went ahead and booked him in for the rear roll. He dramatically improved the issue, but he wasn’t comfortable on bolting in a guard roller in fear the guards will get damaged. The heat gun and mallet technique was employed instead, but due to the design of the BMW rear guards and his conservative approach I may need to get the guards cut or at least rolled again in the future once I change the wheels to something wider and more aggressive.

Des “rolling” the rear guards:

Now this can’t be my patented build thread if there weren’t any “incidents”. I was driving down the freeway during heavy rain heading to indoor soccer one day and as I was crossing Mount Henry Bridge the curse of the Morgan appeared. A piece of metal fell off the back of a truck in front of me; and with limited space and time I wasn’t able to dodge it so it struck my car at a considerable force. I didn’t think much of it and continued driving. It was only upon reaching Lords I realised the extent of the damage, the piece of metal managed to create a gash in my bumper. In hindsight I was lucky it didn’t land higher up otherwise it may have caused considerably more damage.

Not ideal:

To add salt to the wound a set of Exotics Tuning carbon fibre front splitters arrived a few days later. I didn’t want to run the Kerscher or iCarbon front lips due to the common nature of them in the 1 series scene. Exotics Tuning made a carbon splitter that was different and I liked them. The only issue was that they only produced a limited 100 set run. As luck has it someone was selling a set with very minor damage over in Canada. I bought them from him and planned to get them fixed locally before I fitted them. Turns out I had to fix my front bumper before I fitted them too.

Exotic Tuning splitters:

Now we fast-forward a couple of weeks. I was away in Hong Kong and on the day I returned to Perth the car was not running as smooth as I expected. There were a few misfires when boost came on and I thought it was just a case of older fuel and a possible need for a spark plug change. The daily errands continued until this came up.

Lol:

I was in 2nd gear at the time accelerating at a moderate pace, the car made a loud bang/miss and the warning came up. I pulled over to the side of the road and checked on the car, I noticed the intake was a bit loose so I re-tightened it and turned the car on again. It ran as normal so I didn’t think much of it, when I was home I checked the Cobb and it came up with a “P29DC – Cylinder injection shutdown” fault code. I knew something wasn’t right. I had the suspicion it was injector failure due to the fact the N54’s had a recall a while back for failing ones. The thought of a failing high-pressure fuel pump “HPFP” also came across my mind since once again there was a recall for them too. However there were no obvious codes coming up and the car drove fine for the next few days, I still loaded a 92ron map on the Cobb just in case and waited for some more codes to come up for easier diagnostics.

Fault code:

I organised a time to get the bumper repaired but curiosity got the best of me and I trial fitted the splitters. The damaged edges were already fixed so I wanted to make sure the fitment wasn’t effected.

Trial fit:

My trial fit ended up staying on the car even though it wasn’t fitting properly, others were not impressed with my dodgy ways when they saw it at breakfast at txtSHOTS that weekend. After breakfast we went to visit Steve at Autopro Innaloo I wanted to see if he had the spark plugs in stock so I could change them that afternoon, unfortunately they weren't but he went ahead and ordered a set for me at a very decent price. It turns out the N54's use a different spark plug socket compared to the norm so it wouldn't of been possible to change the plugs that day anyway. We also went to Galvsport afterwards and it appears Josh stepped it up with customer service. With the money he makes on my breakages he invested in a larger tow truck to fit both the cars in times of need.

How thoughtful:

A week had passed and the car still wasn’t throwing codes nor did it consistently show the traits of a failing HPFP or injectors. This was rather frustrating due to the fact it makes diagnosing what to fix quite hard. One night driving home it finally happened, the ECU went into limp mode and the Cobb came up with the same issue “P29DC – Cylinder injection shutdown”.

Limp mode:

Same code:

I was happy/disappointed at the same time since I have finally isolated on what needed replacing. Upon speaking to several people very familiar with N54’s they suggested this code doesn’t necessarily mean it needed new injectors but instead it is an early sign of the HPFP letting go. I started looking into the options of bringing the car back to Auto Classic which required me to remove all the modifications, or if it was worthwhile getting the parts ourselves and replacing it instead.

Regardless I still went ahead with getting the front bumper repaired along with fitting the splitters. I had plans on changing the front bumper entirely but was talked into repairing the bumper instead. So far it appears to be holding up and unnoticeable unless you look very critically. If it ever annoys me enough I will change to a new bumper in the future but for the time being, it will stay.

Repair:

Carbon splitters installed:

Other little things I did was doing a hard wire install for my radar detector, it occurred to me the dash looked much better without the ugly cable reaching into the 12v socket when I drove without it for a few days so it inspired me to finally fit it. The wiring in the 1 is quite tight so for ease of install I bought an aftermarket hardwire kit along with a mini fuse tap.

Stupid fuse box location:

Alternative to splicing wires:

Truth be told I wasn’t 100% happy with how the splitters linked to the front bumper, something looked missing. The idea came across my mind of getting the same vinyl on my roof wrapped on the bottom lip of the bumper to create a subtle link. Hiding the white underside was all that was required, in my opinion this would improve the overall appearance. So once again I harassed Gav at GT Graphics and he was happy to do the job for me. Whilst he was working on applying the vinyl on the front I went ahead and removed some vinyl on the back. The car came with clear vinyl protection on the rear bumper to prevent scratches when loading the boot. I always hated this due to it yellowing however I never came around to ripping it off. The noises I was making literally ripping it off created a concerned look on Gavin’s face, but miraculously I didn’t do any damage.

Gav working his magic again:

Didn’t tear off the paint:

Subtle link:

The car required new front brake pads, so showing true form I once again engaged the compulsive idiot mode and went ahead and ordered a few more parts. This consisted of; Ferodo DS2500 front and rear pads, new brake sensors, StopTech braided lines, Hard Brakes titanium shims, E92 M3 front sway bar, 3rd brake light (finally), ZHP gear knob, wipers, filters, and other random miscellaneous things. These were separated into three different suppliers (HPA, ECS, United BMW) but miraculously they all decided to arrive at the same time.

Irony (sway bar into fragile logo):

Bliss:

I was quite excited to fit the ZHP gear knob; during my initial test drive of the 1 my first criticism was the standard M sport gear knob. It is not very ergonomically shaped, it has rough edges, and it feels cheap. I struggled to find a replacement. I didn’t want something too aftermarket looking and BMW’s have no thread to screw on so there were limited options. The “M sport” ZHP gear knob looked plain and OEM but more importantly it is much more comfortable. Since I was making an ECS order I decided to just give it a shot and I don’t regret it a single bit.

No more awkward squared “gooseneck”:

The spark plug socket also arrived (traditional left, N54 right):

A few more days had passed and it finally happened. The car was stuttering and went into limp mode during normal driving. As weird as this sound, this was a sigh of relief. It confirms the car needs a new HPFP, which is much easier than changing the injectors or even having to trouble shoot endlessly. BMW has several revisions on the HPFP unit now (5 from memory) and claim the latest version no longer fails. They also brought down the price from $2000+ (crack pipe) to $350 so it is safe to say many others have suffered the HPFP failure. I was actually in the middle of an order getting processed with BMR so it was a case of just requesting an extra HPFP to be shipped with my order. After a bit of discussion we came to the conclusion I should change my brake rotors whilst we upgraded everything else brake wise, I went ahead and ordered ECS 2 piece cross-drilled and slotted front rotors and 1 piece slotted rear rotors. Once again I used the excuse “might as well order other stuff while I am at it” and bought an Evolution Racewerks competition series FMIC kit and also a BMS oil catch can. Once they arrive along with the HPFP the 1 will go into Galvsport to get some love.

HPFP code:

So there we have it, I have finally made a build thread for the 1 and covered majority of its life up until now. It actually took me a few days sparing free time here and there to type all this. If you made it this far I thank you for taking the time to read it. I hope the next update is good news with all the planned upgrades/repairs going ahead smoothly.

I purchased a set from there and they sent me out LHD ones which don't fit on our RHD cars. I asked them about it and they said as they're a US shop they only stock LHD and couldn't offer any other resolution other than telling me to remove the blade inset of the new wiper and replace it with my old one.

When I asked them a couple times how to remove the ends of the wiper blade to remove the insert they stopped replying... It was only $13 but still, not very happy.

Haha sorry Erik. I saw the thread you made along with Josh and Ryan telling me about it.

I see you have chosen a E92 instead now. How are you enjoying it? Quite different from your S2K in the past I would imagine.

at least it's in good hands now.

Yeah, it was a hard not to buy 135i but I like 335i styling better and the price dropped a lot from new so it was affordable for me to buy.. it made my decision to buy one easier although can't get manual

It is a much different car than S2K and my old MKV R32 (Boring), so much torque to begin with, handling is pretty good from factory although can't beat my little S2K for fun factor and it's quite spacious inside. I hope it can beat my S2K track time.